2 Melville United Church Sunday World Communion Sunday * Congregation please stand as you are able. Bold print invites congregational response. Presiding Today: Marion Loree Prelude Welcome & Announcements Sharing the Light Call to Worship: Light, love, and liberty are the gifts of God. We come in peace. Bread, wine, and friendship are the gifts of Christ. We come in joy. Wisdom, compassion, and grace are the gifts of the Spirit. We come in hope. Come, people of God, let us worship our God together. *Hymn: God, Whose Love is Ever With Us VU 399 God, whose love is ever with us, source of all, the ending true; hear the universal chorus raised in joyful praise to you: worship ancient, worship new. Word of God from nature bringing springtime green and autumn gold; mountain streams like children singing, ocean waves like thunder bold: as creation's tale is told.
Holy God of ancient glory, choosing man and woman, too; Abr'am's faith and Sarah's story formed a people bound to you. to your covenant keep us true. Lift we then our human voices in the songs that faith would bring; live we then in human choices lives that, like our music, sing: joined in love our praises ring! 3 Opening Prayer: God, we come with thanks for words and actions that tell the stories of who we are and from where we have come. We give thanks for the abundance of blessings we enjoy, and for the times you surprise us in unexpected places. Holy Love, we long to feel closer to Spirit but sometimes act out of selfish ambition and conceit. Forgive us and help us to be humble. When we disregard the needs of others, forgive us, and let compassion guide our thinking. When we idolize ourselves, our ideas and our ways, forgive us, and open our minds to seeing you in everyone. May we uncover something special in this sacred time together. Words of Assurance: Beloved, know that God is at work in each of us, enabling us to both imagine and work for the kin-dom to be. Thanks be to God! Joys and Concerns: Sacrament of Holy Communion *Hymn: Bread of Life, Feed My Soul MV 194 4 Invitation: As we come to this table we are reminded that this is not the table of Melville United Church; nor is it the table of the United Church of Canada or any particular denomination. It is the table of Jesus the Christ, the family feast of the whole people of God. All who seek to be nourished and sustained in the journey of faith and long to live justly and in peace with their neighbour, are welcome here. May God be with us. God is here among us. Let us open our hearts to God We open them to God and to one another. Let us give thanks to God. It is right to give thanks and praise. Grounded in the vine that is our source of existence, we give thanks for the gift of life that connects us to all creation. We are one with Earth and its creatures. Grounded in the body that is the life of Christ, we give thanks for our brothers and sisters who follow the way of Jesus. We are one with those who share our story. Grounded in our passion for justice, we give thanks for all who work for the common good. We are one with all who seek to be a community of compassion. Grounded in the bread we break and the cup we share, we give thanks for what we receive at this table: wholeness and unifying peace, courage to break boundaries and strength to self-give. We are one with love itself in the path that we follow and the life we are called to lead. And so we gather with those of every time and every place to give our praise and glory as we raise our voices together to sing; O holy, holy, holy God, (MV 203) O God of time and space. All earth and sea and sky above bear witness to your grace. Hosanna in the highest heav n creation sings your praise.
And blessed in the One who comes and bears your name always! 5 6 Eternal God, we unite......we sing of the mystery of faith: Sing Christ has died and Christ is risen, (MV 204) Christ will come again! Sing Christ has died and Christ is risen, Christ will come again! At this time we also remember......as we sing together the prayer he taught us... The Lord s Prayer: (sung) VU 960 Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. On the night before he died, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks, he broke it and passed it to his friends saying: Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Each time you do this, remember me. In the same way he took the cup saying: This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood. Each time you drink from this cup, remember me. We pray you, God of Love, send your Spirit upon us and what we do here, that we, and these gifts, touched by your Spirit, may be signs of life and love to each other, and to all the world. Amen, amen, O Holy One! (MV 205) Hosanna and Amen! Amen, amen, O Holy One, Hosanna and Amen! Breaking of the Bread & Pouring of the Cup The body of Christ - the bread of life. The blood of Christ - the cup of blessing. Jesus said: I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry: whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. The gifts of God for the people of God. Come for all things are now ready. Sharing of the Elements: The body of Christ - the bread of life. The blood of Christ - the cup of blessing. Post Communion Prayer: We give thanks that bread broken brings wholeness; that wine poured out replenishes; that time spent with the Risen Christ and one another is gift and grace. Children s Prayer: Dear God, help our lips to praise (touch lips) help our hands to serve (hold out hands) help our heart to love (fold hands across chest) Scripture: Philippians 2:1-13 (The Inclusive Bible: the First Egalitarian Translation) (Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus)
7 If our life in Christ means anything to you - if love, or sympathy can persuade you at all - then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing that would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit, but everybody is to be humble: value others over yourselves, each of you thinking of the interests of others before your own. Your attitude must be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Christ, though in the image of God, didn t deem equality with God something to be clung to - but instead became completely empty and took on the image of oppressed humankind: born into the human condition, found in the likeness of a human being. Jesus was thus humbled - obediently accepting death, even death on a cross! Because of this, God highly exalted Christ and gave to Jesus the name above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God: Jesus Christ reigns supreme! Therefore, my dear friends, you who are always obedient to my urging, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not only when I happen to be with you, but all the more now that I m absent. It is God at work in you that creates the desire to do God s will. Reader: Barb Gregory Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 (The Inclusive Bible: the First Egalitarian Translation) (Water flows from the rock for thirsty people) The Israelites left the desert of Syn to travel by stages, as YHWH had directed them. They camped at Rephidim, but found no drinking water. Again they turned on Moses, saying, Give us drinking water. Moses replied, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test YHWH? But the people were thirsty, and complained even more to Moses. Why did you bring us out of Egypt only to make us and our children and our livestock die of thirst? Moses appealed to YHWH. What am I to do with these people? They are ready to stone me! YHWH answered Moses, Take some of the elders and move to the front of the people. Take with you the staff with which you struck the 8 Nile. Go! I will wait for you there by the rock of Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink. And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders. Moses named the place Massah, Testing. and Meribah, Quarreling. for the Israelites tested YHWH when they said, Is YHWH with us or not? Message: Is God with us, or not? Hymn: Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love VU 593 Offering: *Offering Hymn: For the Gift of Creation VU 538 *Offertory Prayer: With humility, we share from our resources to further our ministry as a church. With hope, we offer our gifts so together we may grow to be more like Jesus. With love, we offer our praise and dedicate ourselves to you, Sacred Spirit *Hymn: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah VU 651 *Blessing: As you leave this place remember that God does not leave you. God is with us, within us, around us and part of us always. Spirit works through you to bring about justice in the world. We carry Spirit s power within us. Offer your hands to God s work as Jesus did. We will labour until the world gives birth to perfect peace. Go, knowing you can never be separated from the Creator s love. *Parting Song: You Shall Go Out with Joy VU 884 Postlude:
9 Prayer of the Week: Let us feel you close to us, our God, Rock, and Source of Strength, for our travels have made us thirsty, our trials have made us weary, our tribulations have pushed us apart; leaving us longing for the nourishment and refreshment that only you can provide. Partners in Prayer: Elora Road Christian Fellowship Prayer Cycle for Hamilton Conference: Bloomingdale Prayer Tree Captain: Alison Rainford Welcomers: Counters: Elizabeth Stinson, Isobel Glennie, Lorna Ziegler, Eleanor Johnston Kaillie Rawn and Phil Brown